Tifa & Yuffie

[Tifa Lockhart]

They were downtown when Blues spotted their first clue. It was a a tiny thing, something anyone else would have missed. Atop of a puddle on the sidewalk was a thin layer of rainbow shimmer. Oil.
It could have been any oil, especially near the road, but Blues seemed strangely certain that it was not from a car. He pulled his bike over, helping Sai down. They were both soaked through, but Blues had ensured Sai was rugged up warmly, even forcing him to wear his own leather jacket over the top of his other one.
"All right, stay close to me," he urged as they made their way down the dark, wet street.

Little did they know, they were on the right track. Zero had found himself a place out of the rain in a little alcove in an undercover car parking terminal. The rain had been playing havoc with his exposed circuitry. Now he lay on the ground, hooked up to a power conduit he had hacked in to. He was no stranger to this pain, but for the first time in his long, long life, he didn't Have the desire to fight.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito clung close to Blues' side, hanging off of his arms like a child on his first excursion into the world beyond his door. He nodded in response when the man told him to stay close, eyes scanning around him for any sign of Zero.

As they walked they found themselves at the entrance to a parking building, which towered up into the sky above them. Sai seemed intent on checking inside, gently tugging on his love's arm to urge him to go. As they would continue to investigate the carpark, Sai continued to cling to his love's arm, watching around him with an anxious look in his eyes.

[Tifa Lockhart]

They'd searched almost the entire car park facility before Blues thought he spotted something in a darkened corner. He urged Saito to follow him, squinting with his keen gaze through the rain and the darkness. That's when he realised exactly what he was looking.
"Sai! There, it's Zero!" he urged, running towards the reploid's hiding place.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito immediately ran to follow his love, bolting past him when he, too, saw Zero. He restrained himself from throwing himself at Zero when he saw the sparks flying from the reploid's arm, however, instead skidding to a stop in front of him, panting heavily from the exertion, putting out his hands to touch his friend's face and call his attention.
"Zero! Zero are...are you okay? C-can you hear me...?" he asked, huskily, trying to pull his friend's eyes up to meet his, tears springing to his eyes when he saw the damage to one side if his face, neck and chest and his nearly-obliterated arm as the reploid's injured side turned into his view. He turned to Blues again, telling him to call Yuichiro quickly. He then turned to sit beside his friend, gently touching his face to inspect the damage. His expression fell yet more as he realised the severity of the damage the reploid had endured to protect him. "Are you okay...? Does it hurt? I-is there...anything I c-can do to help...?" he asked, tripping slightly on his already painful throat and the tears that threatened to fall. "...I'm so sorry, Zero...I-I should have been the one...wh-who got hurt by that fire...don't worry, we'll get you back to Sci-lab...as soon as we can, I promise..." he said, seeming to be losing breath again. He turned back to Blues again, eyes pleading him, gently. "tell Papa to...send a mechanics crew...along with the pick-up. We can't m-move him like this" he said, turning back to Zero again to thank him again for saving him, seeming torn between his joy at finding the blonde and his pain at seeing the wounds he had suffered for his sake.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Blues had already begun dialing for Professor Hikari when Saito instructed him to do so. He relayed his instructions hurriedly.
"I'll wait outside for them," he told the young boy before he hurried out onto the street.

Zero was slow to respond to Saito's voice. His damaged eye, that had been previously dim and half-lidded, opened as his one remaining good eye did. The light that illuminated the damaged eye flickered for a moment before it lit properly. Without its top layer, the more humanising elements, Saito would be able to see the way different parts of the eye rotated different directions in order to focus its lens in on him.
"I'm fine, Little Hikari," he insisted, the good side of his face moving into a slight smile. His voice was warped, and the processors that made his voice could be seen whirring and adjusting through the cavity in his neck. Slowly the reploid tried to push himself upwards, his joints making all manner of angry whirring noises as they protested the movement.
"I have had far worse, believe me..." it seemed that the golden haired reploid still had his sense of humour despite his situation.
"I thought with a little charging I could make my way back to the lab and repair myself but..."
He tried to move his damaged arm. All the remained of it was skeletal basics, and the lack of attaching hydraulics meant he could barely lift it.
"Not this time..." he leaned back against the wall behind him. "I am tired."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito put out an arm to support his friend, his eyes clouding with worry as his expression tightening with every new problem that arose with his friend. He stood again to move around to Zero's bad side, gently moving to inspect the damage to his arm, his touch as light as he could make it to try and avoid hurting the reploid. "I'm sorry, though...i-it was protecting me...that got you hurt. Just hang on a little longer...Papa will be here soon...he's bringing a repair crew with him...to help you." he said, softly, offering a small, seemingly forced smile. He looked up after a moment, meeting his friend's eyes again with a deep, slightly shaky breath. "I...I could have died today...if it weren't for you, Zero...I owe you my life. But...I-I don't understand why you ran away...you were really hurt...we were lucky to even find you...you might have died...I couldn't forgive myself if you died for my sake..." his eyes fell again from Zero's eyes to scan over his damaged face, with a heavy, trembling sigh as he reached up to very gently dust some soot from the less-damaged side of his friend's face. "...I was scared for you...I hear you cry out...when you were hurt...I was afraid that I...that I would be too late. You've become like a big brother to me...I would hate to lose you."

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero reached over to touch Saito's hand that was inspecting what remained of his right arm.
"Something that is broken can only be put back together so many times, Little Hikari."
The light in Zero's eyes flickered for a moment before illuminating again.
"This body you built me may be new... But I have been around for a long time... I have outlived everyone dear to me, human and reploid alike..."
His good hand rose again then, the tiny hologram of X appearing there. The hologram was clearly weak and damaged, flickering and warping rather than remaining sturdy as it had the first time Zero had shared this image with Saito. As Zero looked down at it through damaged optics his hand began to tremble.
"There is... Something you must know about me..."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito saw Zero's hand begin to shake and reached out with the hand that had been formerly inspecting Zero's injured arm to support his friend's hand in his own, to hold the image suspended above his open palm steady for the him. He looked up at Zero as he began to speak again after his brief silence, a look of confusion crossing his somewhat pale face. "what is it, Zero? I-is something wrong...?" he asked, his gaze meeting the reploid's fearfully, concern running deep in his dark coloured eyes.

[Tifa Lockhart]

It seemed to take Zero a few moments to summon up the courage to continue speaking, even as the nervous boy urged him on.
"I... Am not the good guy... Not by design..." he answered.
The hologram of X went out for a moment, before the dwindling reploid forced it to return. X's features were blurred, the hologram losing its form.
"I was built... With only destruction in mind... And i contained within me a virus that was specifically created to turn all reploids against people..."
The lights in Zero's eyes dimmed again, and he dropped a head to rest it on Saito's shoulder. He was running out of power very quickly.
"It was X who helped me... We isolated the virus from me and i was moved to a new body... We then destroyed the original..."
He gave a soft exclamation of discomfort when sparks leaped from the damaged side of his chest.
"We... We thought we were rid of it forever but..."

He could feel it clawing its way up, emerging from the dark recesses into which it had hidden, hoping to grow in silence until its time came to strike. Now he knew he didn't have the strength to keep it back.
Not without X.

The hologram of X finally went out, and Zero did not have the strength to bring it back again. His hand moved to withdraw something from where he'd been laying when they found him.
"In a moment... I will shut down... And i don't want to be reactivated..."
He pressed what he was holding in to Sai's hand. It was his armband.
"Let... Me go as the... Good guy he made me... Not the monster I was forced to be..."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito couldn't hold back his tears anymore as the reploid sagged against his shoulder, his eyes beginning to flicker and die and he gave a soft cry of alarm when the sparks began to leap from Zero's damaged chest. The Zero requested him to leave him to die, and Saito couldn't sit by and listen anymore. "Z-Zero, please...! don't say such things! I know you, I know you can fight it! w-whatever it is we can stop it!" he sobbed, putting his arms around his friend, desperately trying to keep him awake, even as the reploid weakly pushed the armband he had thought was lost in the fire into his hand. "Please, Zero, don't stop fighting! X wouldn't want you to stop fighting! P-please...there must be something I can do to help, a-anything at all! I-I'll find a way, I promise!" he held the reploid close as if that might keep him from slipping away, terrified that he might lose the friend he'd only just met without having the chance to repay him for rescuing him from certain death. "X never made you anything, Zero...X just helped you to realise who you really were! The fact that you were ever good is enough to prove it! you're not a monster, any more than...than Protoman o-or I were when we were...f-forced to hurt the people we cared about!" He was aware that the silver-haired man in question could likely hear him wailing, he was making such a fuss, his tears only serving to worsen the persisting ache in his chest, but what mattered most to him now was keeping Zero from dying, if he could. "I-I don't care what you were told you were...or what s-someone else wanted you to b-be...what matters is the truth, and I know you're not a...a monster, Zero, I'll find some way to help you...no matter what it takes! It's the l-least I could do for you to rep-pay you for everything...you're my friend, Zero, don't you...d-dare forget it!" He forced Zero's weakening gaze to meet his own, though the tears continued to stream down his face. "and my f-friends mean more to me than...than my own l-life! I'd go to ends of the earth if it meant my friends were s-safe! J-just because you're a reploid...d-doesn't mean you're any different!"

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero gave a sad smile as Saito directed his gaze up to meet his own. The lights in his eyes flickered again before going out, making it likely that he couldn't actually see anymore.
"X is gone... And he isn't going to be here to scold me."
The reploid's head sagged back down on to Saito's shoulder.
"I'm glad... That I met you, Little Hikari," he said, his voice warm and soft. "It... Was nice. To be treated... Like a real human."
His good eye closed, and then something remarkable happened. A tiny silver tear squeezed from his eye and rolled down his charred face. The reploid's eye opened again, his good hand straining to rise to his face and touch it.
"W-what is...?" It seemed to strike him, and a weak chuckle rattled from his damaged throat.
"L-look at me X... I've gone soft like you..."
Then the quivering hand began to drop, coming to rest atop one of Saito's. The gem on Zero's helmet flickered a few times as a group of running footfalls echoed through the car park, damp from the pouring rain.
But as they rounded the corner, Blues at their lead with his silver hair flowing like a sail behind him, the crystal went dark, and the reploid sagged against the boy loosely.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

"Z-Zero, no! P-please, don't die on me! Zero!" Saito wailed, breaking down into hysterical tears as the last signs of life began to fade from his friend, hardly having the awareness to recognise that Zero had actually cried past the haze of tears in his own eyes, and then Zero spoke his last and was still. "Zero! P-please, wake up! Don't die!" Saito flung his arms helplessly around his friend's shoulder, sobbing raggedly, whimpering something to himself under his breath and feebly shaking his head as though in denial that what he was experiencing was true. He hardly heard the footsteps around the corner, too occupied grieving his friend's loss. "please...please t-tell me you're s-still there...I-I have to save you...i-if I can't...w-will it m-mean...I'm not g-good enough...?" he sobbed, afraid that he had failed to do something he should have done and that it would mean the end of everything he'd fought for. If he couldn't save one person...could he save millions? He didn't think so. He closed his eyes and clung helplessly to his friend's limp body, afraid to open his eyes and look again at Zero's lifeless form. He didn't even try to stop the tears, even though he knew crying wouldn't change anything, it sure as hell was the only way to express how he felt. In all his years, while he had watched friends and innocents be brutally injured or killed, or worse turned by the darkness, he had never felt the life of someone he cared about slip away in his arms...he didn't know how he felt, but it was horrible, to feel someone grow still and cold when they had formerly been someone so alive and so dear to him was something he had never wanted to experience and certainly never wanted to experience again...but he was afraid that he would, because if he failed to become Ultima's true avatar in this time, millions would die, and he would be responsible for the deaths of all the people who mattered most to him along with countless other helpless innocents. It seemed that Death mocked him constantly, as if it had grown tired of his continuing escapes from its clutches, and saw fit to instead make him suffer by taking away those he cared about instead...that thought made his blood run cold; what if Lan or Blues were next? what if he couldn't protect them...? He couldn't bear the thought of a life without Blues or without his brother. It would be hell incarnate.

[Tifa Lockhart]

"Saito!" Blues called as he reached the boy's side, eyes flicking to the still darkness of Zero's gaze. It was somewhat uncanny, seeing the gears and wires that existing beneath the surface of a face that seemed so human otherwise. He felt his heart twist when he realised they were too late. "Saito let go, your father can't help him if you don't let go."
He reached around the boy, trying to pull his arms away from Zero as Professor Hikari moved forward to try and take the limp reploid.
"It will be all right," Blues tried to console his love. "You and the Professor have rebuilt him before, he was much worse off than this. It will be fine."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Saito at first fought to hang on to Zero, but after a moment, he finally let go, turning to bury his face in his love's shoulder, holding tightly to his shoulders, as if he were afraid that if he didn't, Blues would slip away from him too. He couldn't find his voice to even begin to reply, gasping and sobbing raggedly around his tears, struggling to breathe in enough between tears and soft coughs to be able to form the words. Between already being short of breath from is earlier ordeal and his feeble attempts to breathe between sobs, he only had enough air as he needed to stay awake, not enough to speak.
Though when he thought about it, he wasn't really sure what he would have even said if he could have said anything...what was there to say? Zero was dead, and he'd watched him die, felt his last 'breaths' fading from him. There was no words for that, there was no verbal outlet for that kind of agony. All that there was, was endless tears and the cruel imaginary cackle of 'death'...or was it the Dark Lord himself who laughed at his pain? Was he watching? Did he know? Maybe he'd planned it all from the start...it was Dark Beast viruses that started the fire after all...had he known that Death would not stop Ultima from being reborn again? Had he decided that to destroy his confidence in himself and his will to fight was the best way to ensure Saito's -and Ultima's- demise...? That thought made Saito feel sick to his stomach, and he tried to focus his thoughts elsewhere...on the arms that held him and the voice soothing him. He tried to focus on the here and now and on Blues. Thinking about him had always helped before, maybe it could help him now.

[Tifa Lockhart]

"Professor, I'm going to take Saito home to Lan," Blues called out to the man, who had already moved Zero's body so that he could inspect all the damage.
So Blues gathered Saito up in his arms, making sure he had a firm grasp on the boy before he started back towards where he'd left his bike outside the parking building.
He climbed onto the bike, arranging Saito carefully between himself and the handle bars. He then started off down the sodden street as fast as he could, back to the Hikari residence.

Lan and Chaud were waiting anxiously in the lounge room when they arrived. Both were wrapped in blankets with mugs of Haruka's famous hot chocolate to warm them up. They'd been out in the rain searching as well.

"Did you find him?" Chaud asked them as the appeared, but he fell silent the moment he got a grim nod from Blues. His expression and Saito's misery made it obvious what had happened.